Question:
Discuss about the Evaluating Marketing Strategy and Recommendations.
This report sheds light on the concept of marketing mix and evaluation of marketing mix. Marketing mix strategy is the process of communication in the marketing and it has 8 core concepts. There are 8 Ps’ in marketing, product, prices, promotion, distribution, partnerships, people, processes and physical evidence. In this report, all the 8Ps’ will be highlighted both theoretically and practical basis. In the first part of the study, an overview of Burger Urge organisation will be discussed with target market of the organisation. Marketing objectives of the organisation will be discussed with this. 8Ps’ off marketing will be applied on the burger food item of the organisation and it will be evaluated on competition and broader contemporary issues facing marketers today. In the last section of the report, recommendations on marketing mix will be given on each of the 8Ps’.
Burger Urge is based on mainly Brisbane and it is a burger chain in Australia. This organisation was established by two brothers Sean and Colby in the year 2007. It was founded as a small restaurant in Fortitude Valley. However, it grew up rapidly and in the year 2016, it has almost 19 restaurants all over Queensland, Gold Coast and it is going to open its branch in New South Wales (Burgerurge.com.au, 2017). Burger Urge is famous for its soft drinks, alcoholic beverages and Burgers. In the genre of burger, it is mainly famous for a chicken burger, salad, fries and people can have vegan and gluten-free food items. It is now a franchise based business and it offers online delivery also. In this report, the main focus will be on burger offerings of the Burger Urge. In burgers, it offers beef, chicken and veg burgers to the customers. Some of the famous burgers in Burger Urge are The Big Boppa, El Diablo and The Big Rich.
Burger Urge does marketing with using dynamic strategies that can impact on the consumers. Basically, in the Australian market, burger and fast food industry are saturated. There are big players in the industry like McDonald’s; KFC is present in the market. Moreover, there are several small organisations in the market like Red Rooster, Chicken Treat, Zambrero, Pie Face and Eagle Boys. Marketing mix mainly helps to allocate the responsibilities to the stakeholders (Huang & Sarigollu, 2014). Marketing mix also helps the organisation to communicate with the customers about their products and services. Management can analyse the cost-benefit elasticity. Moreover, Burger Urge is in the restaurant industry and it faces huge competition from the competitors present in the market.
Products are the offerings of the company and it includes design and usefulness to the customers (Mintz & Currim, 2013). The product also signifies the value, quality, brand and expiry dates. Products of an organisation need to deliver at least minimum level of performance. All products of organisations offer to the customers have product lifecycle and marketers need to understand this. The benefits of the products should be conveyed to the customers and it will deliver the unique selling proposition of the brand (Armstrong et al., 2015).
Burger Urge mainly operates in the quick service restaurant that offers burgers of various kinds. Apart from burgers, it offers fries, salads, soft and hard drinks. In burgers, it provides various types burgers to the customers, chicken beef and veg. Burger Urge’s main products can be segregated into American Style, House Special and Classics. Burger Kings provides the burgers in beef (Babe & daisy, El Diablo, The Big Boppa), in chicken (Pineapple Express and Hotel California) and it veg (South of the Border and Magic Mushroom). The sauces given by the Burger Urge are designed in houses of Western Australia and these are all free from colours, preservations and additives chemicals. Moreover, Burger Urge only uses free-range mayonnaise, free range chicken and free range eggs to produce the food items. The beef burgers are 100% Australians and these are sourced from Western Australia.
On the other side, the competitors of the Burger Urge is McDonald’s in Australia, it offers the burgers in different size and recipe and name of burgers are Big Mac, Quarter Pounder, Cheese Burger, hamburger and Chicken and Cheese (Mcdonalds.com.au, 2017). McDonalds’ products have attributes of culture, towards religion and customers’ sentiments. It has separate cooking areas and equipment for Muslim people.
Burger Urge keeps its eyes on the health of the customers and all the products are checked by health and food department of Australia. The bread sold by Burger Urge is hand baked and these are free from trans fats, palm oil and artificial emulsifiers. Burger Urge tries to keep the environment clean and they are taking the responsibility for packaging used by Burger Urge is biodegradable. The target market of the organisation is mainly based on demographic segment. The target markets of Burger Urge are mainly young generation and corporate persons. The products of Burger Urge can attract target markets easily.
Price is the amount that the end users have to pay and the price is responsible for selling the products. The organisation can set the pricing strategy, low pricing, premium pricing and price skimming. The perceived value of product is important than the objective costing of product (Leonidou, Katsikeas & Morgan, 2013). The organisation needs to understand the perception of the customers on their products. If the price of a product is higher than the perceived value of customers, the products will not sell.
Burger Urge mainly uses price skimming strategy in making amount the food items. Price skimming strategy is about setting the price of the products in relatively high at first in introducing the products and then the price becomes lower (Hanssens et al., 2014). Burger Urge offers distinct burgers in tastes and styles often that are different from competitors. Price skimming helps them to market the products as the quality and looks of the products make perception about high valued products. American Style burger Boston Cheese costs $11.5 and Southern Fried Chicken Burger costs $13 and New Yorker burger costs $13.5.
On the other side, market competitors McDonalds and KFC use the strategy of low pricing in order to grab more customers. McDonalds and KFC are global brands and they can offer the products at minimal prices not in temporary but for always.
In societal perspectives, it can be deduced that Burger Urge cannot take the advantage of low pricing strategies of other brands sell more than them. The consistent low pricing strategy of competitors without price promotions creates an issue for Burger King.
The place is related to the process to be provided to the customers. The place also signifies the stores and outlets where the products can be collected by the customers. In case of placement, distribution is the main element and organisation has to understand the channels of distribution (Fan, Lau & Zhao, 2015).
Burger Urge has more than 19 outlets in Queensland and Gold Coast and it is going to open its store in NSW as well. The outlets are cosy and ambience is beautiful. Burger Urge uses the direct supply chain to have agricultural products from the Australia based farmers. The raw materials are mainly fresh and Burger Urge is proud partners with local suppliers. The beef is taken from southwest slopes of NSW and the beef are grown in the tender grass. In recent times, the sustainable farming issue is in news; Burger Urge uses sustainable and ethical farming (Burgerurge.com.au, 2017).
Moreover, Burger Urge tries to make short of distribution channel that is helpful to lower the cost. On the other side, McDonalds and KFC use mainly restaurants, mobile apps and websites to locate the products. McDonald’s mainly uses intermediaries in distribution process and intermediaries reach their products to them (Mcdonalds.com.au, 2017).
For Burger Urge, place refers to selling point and it helps to catch the eyes of the customers. Right location helps to find people the right products.
Marketing communication and marketing strategies fall into the category of promotions. Organisations do promotions in order to increase the visibility of brand awareness and reach to target markets (Helm & Gritsch, 2014). Organisations can use various channels to reach to the customers in order to market the products. As stated by Lau (2016), promotion can be defined as a communication channel in the entire marketing function.
Burger Urge is not a large organisation that can use television marketing or billboard marketing as these are costly. Burger Urge organisation uses mainly social media marketing strategies and they have social media accounts Facebook and Twitter. Burger Urge posts mainly about the location of outlets and special discounts on social media pages. Burger Urge provides large deals and discounts to the customers in order to increase the sales. In social media, Burger Urge does special competition among the users and they can win special offer from the company. Burger Urge attracts local customers by distributing flyers with newspapers. Burger Urge has been facing the issues of technology as it does not have digital technology IT team within the organisation to promote the business. It ensures brand awareness and ‘findability’ of the brand. The technological implication is costly and recruiting a PR team means needs of money.
On the other side, McDonalds and KFC in Australia are big names, they use all types of IMC (Integrated Marketing Communication) as they can invest a large amount of money in marketing. Moreover, the competitors use membership strategy and loyalty bonus strategy to attract the customers. McDonald’s mainly uses the strategy of ‘happy hours’ and it uses strategies of sales display, direct mail, merchandising and scratch cards. McDonald’s uses CSR technique in the promotion of the business through shared values of customers and society.
Promotions techniques of Burger Urge include sales promotions, advertising, special offers, public relations and social media advertisements and it would help the organisation to flourish.
Products need to sell and the people are the most important element in marketing. In order to create customer experience memorable, it is needed to provide training to the employees of the organisation. In order to the personal or direct selling of the products, people are most important (Thorat, Kishor & Meghe, 2013).
Burger Urge has many outlets and they recruit salespeople in order to sell their food items. In order to manufacture the food items, Burger Urge needs to people. Moreover, in recent time, recruiting people from various ethnic backgrounds and making the workplace culturally dynamic is the need of CSR. Burger Urge has been facing the issue of societal perspectives in recruiting the workforce from diverse backgrounds.
On the contrary, McDonalds and KFC use the philosophy of services, quality and cleanliness in outlets through using of people. McDonald’s wants to provide fast-friendly services. McDonald’s uses uniform of the employees for quality enhancement and they provide training to improve basic customer satisfaction.
Customer services of Burger Urge are important and customer service support, technical support and giving customer interface are some of the important works of people.
As pointed out by Hollensen (2015), a process in marketing mix can be described as the norms of achieving the goals. Marketing planning can also be formulated as process of business. The process is delivering value by all elements of marketing mix.
The process is vital in retaining the customers. Burger Urge’s process has inputs and outputs of adding the value of the marketing and they look at the value chain in considering the process of working. Burger Urge evaluates the technological progress and they include direct activities of customer satisfaction and communication modes to the customers.
On the other side, McDonald’s uses new distribution and they make food producing transparent. KFC invented new cooking equipment and customers can check the ingredients of the food.
In today’s world of a competitive market, branding is important for the organisations. The secondary brand association can be helpful. Partnership brand marketing is related to partnership in supply, distribution or in the franchise (Babin & Zikmund, 2015).
Burger Urge uses the technique of franchise; it has 3 franchise outlets in Queensland, 13 in Brisbane and 2 in Gold Coast. However, Burger Urge tries to expand its business through a partnership based on the franchise in highly visible places with high traffic sites (Burgerurge.com.au, 2017).
On the other side, McDonald’s uses the partnership strategy in CSR technique and makes a partnership with community engagement. McDonald’s also makes a partnership with Clean Up Australia in cleaning up the environment.
Burger Urge is taking franchise partnership and it would provide benefits to franchise to expand its business that is quick and hassle free. Another owner can access established brand with proven and successful formula and Burger Urge can get competitive advantage through this.
According to Lang & Heasman (2015), the physical environment is the allocated space by which one can consume the service or in making the products. The physical environment is related to the ambient condition and functionality. Physical evidence can be office premises and buzz of the products. Interface and comfort of the outlets and offices can be part of the physical evidence.
Burger Urge has beautiful interior and these are wifi enabled. Outlets are more than 19 and these are cosy and facilities are modern. Burger Urge uses the technique of cosy exterior design, parking facility to customers and comfortable landscape. In order to provide facility to interior design, they provide layout, air quality and signage.
On the other side, KFC has the smart impression in case of outlets and their staff members are also cordials. Location and appearance of outlets are proper and near the urban sections.
Burger Urge sells burger mainly and it has been facing the competition from global fast food companies. Burger Urge has to differentiate its burger in order to gain competitive advantage. Differentiation is through quality, looks and manufacturing process. The recipe for burgers and new items should come into the market in order to have a large customer base. Burger Urge needs to track mistakes in quality of products and invest more in training of the employees. Burger urge can organise quality circles and improve R&D.
Burger Urge takes the strategy of skimming in introducing new burger items in the market. However, the organisation should take low pricing strategy in order to increase the market share. The low-pricing strategy can be taken as a cost-leadership strategy in the market and customers will definitely purchase products from Burger Urge. Everyday Low Pricing (EDLP) gives the competitive edge to the organisation and it improves frugal company culture. Cutting the cost and maintaining the balance with quality can result in permanent advantage.
In placing the outlets, Burger Urge should consider the urban sections of the city and where people have large disposable income. Moreover, Burger Urge needs to use sustainable distribution technique. As stated by Nestle (2013), sustainable distribution means lowering the cost of transportation between purchaser and vendor. This impacts on social and ecological aspects of the environment as the vehicles would not pollute the environment. The whole process of distribution, storage, picking, process and packaging all will get shortened.
Burger Urge needs to recruit a PR team that would work as communication to the customers. Social media strategy will be useful as it is cost-effective and they can post engaging content. Burger Urge opts to provide healthy burgers and in expanding the business they can tie up with Australian Railway. Corporate tie-up will get benefits as well. Their PR team should highlight the discounts and health facts of their products. Moreover, marketing of Burger Urge should follow ethics and moral principles. They should not lie to the customers and should follow regulations and laws of marketing. Adding Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the promotion will increase brand awareness.
People are the employees of the organisation and Burger Urge has a large number of staff working in various outlets. Burger Urge needs to provide external motivation through rewards and promotions based on a number of sales they would make. Moreover, as it is direct customer handling work, training is mandatory. Burger Urge can arrange on-the-job training in every weekend.
In case of Burger Urge, their processes of workings are of two types, distribution process and manufacturing process. Burger Urge can allow the customers to enter the area where the process of manufacturing of food items takes place to have a Clearview what the customers consuming. This process will enhance the transparency of work process and it would provide a competitive advantage.
In partnership, Burger Urge only makes business partners in expanding the business through the franchise. Now, they can make CSR partners with any NGO or with not-for-profit organisations in order to help the society. As it is in the restaurant business, they can give extra food items to the street children. Burger Urge can make a partnership with Red Cross Australia in order to provide support to the wider community. This marketing strategy can increase brand awareness.
Burger Urge has more than 19 outlets in Australia and it is expanding in NSW as well. Burger Urge needs to focus on environment and they should not process the waste in a way that can harm the environment. Burger Urge uses biodegradable packaging and cleanliness is another important factor in outlets. Burger Urge will serve the products with quality and delivery will be speedy.
Conclusion
Contemporary issues like social media, environment, technology and corporate social responsibility are provided influences on the marketing of Burger Urge. Burger Urge has to monitor the budget in marketing and investing money can result in increased sales and market share. Target market of Burger Urge can visit the nearby restaurants of Burger Urge for their informal meeting as it offers delicious burgers, soft drinks and nice ambiences. Marketing mix provides a guide to the resource allocation of an organisation, both financial and human resources. It helps to communicate with the stakeholders of the organisation. Pilot projects in marketing can be taken by Burger Urge in small scale in order to check the validity of it. Target customers can be reached through the marketing mix and objectives can be met through these. Most importantly, all the factors of marketing ix can influence each other and handle this right can give success to Burger Urge.
Reference List
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